An Initial Assessment of the Consumer Demand Roundtable

Evaluation shows progress has been made by the Consumer Demand Roundtable, particularly in shifting the field to a new way of thinking. An initial assessment of the Consumer Demand Roundtable (CDR) was conducted in 2008 in order to guide ongoing efforts of the National Tobacco Cessation Collaborative to expand the demand, reach and use of effective tobacco-cessation treatments. Thirty tobacco-cessation leaders who had participated in at least one CDR meeting or conference (held between December 2005 and June 2006) were interviewed by telephone in May and June of 2008.

Some results of the evaluation:

CDR appears to have succeeded—despite its limited funding and duration—as a “think tank” in generating new ways of thinking about building consumer demand for tobacco treatment.

The CDR catalyzed opinion leaders in the tobacco-cessation field to identify and to implement feasible innovations in their ongoing work in the research, practice, service and/or policy arenas.

Several new marketing and promotion campaigns, and messages were developed.

Success in making real and lasting change across CDR’s six recommended core strategies will depend on increasing resources to build capacity to meet the existing and new demand.

The ultimate impact of the CDR will depend on continued testing and refinement of its ideas and products, and continued leadership and support for promising strategies and innovations.

This article is part of a special issue on tobacco cessation in the March 2010 edition of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.